Nice catch

The phone calls came on a daily basis. The conversations grew repetitive between the homesick University of Idaho freshman football player and his reassuring father back home in St. James, La. “What am I doing here?” the 18-year-old wide receiver would ask his dad.

“Hey, it’s your freshman year and you’re going to feel like this,” Wendell Octave Sr. would reply. “You’ll make it through and you’ll be fine.”

Sometimes father knows best. Now a thriving sophomore who is second on the team in receptions, Wendell Octave is excelling with the Vandals. It’s everyone else who is asking Octave, ‘What are you doing here?’

For obvious geographical reasons, Idaho hasn’t made a habit of mining Louisiana for recruits, although the Vandals often play in the South as members of the far-flung Sun Belt Conference. Octave is from St. James, located on the west bank of the Mississippi River about halfway between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The latter is home to the Sun Belt Conference offices.

Louisiana-Monroe, which visits Idaho on Saturday, is about 300 miles from St. James. Louisiana-Lafayette, Idaho’s opponent on Oct. 16 in Moscow, is roughly 100 miles from Octave’s hometown. Both schools recruited Octave, who has an older sister that will graduate from UL-Lafayette next year. Another sister, Jamie, is a sophomore basketball player at Nicholls State in Thibodaux, about 25 miles south of St. James.

All of which begs the question: What is Octave doing in Moscow?

“When I was being recruited, my (high school) coach didn’t want me to stay in Louisiana,” he said. “He told me it would be best for me to get out and see what’s going on in the world. As long as I was getting a scholarship, my family was satisfied. They didn’t care what school or where it was, even though they wish I was closer to home.”

There’s a little more to his circuitous route to Moscow. Octave was a late bloomer at St. James, blossoming from 5-feet-7 and 135 pounds as a freshman to an indispensable senior who rarely left the field. He punted, played receiver and defensive back, and returned kicks.

“He was a little bitty guy when he came here and we didn’t know what he was going to be able to do,” St. James coach Rick Gaille said. “Then he grew up. I didn’t get to talk to him much on Friday nights” because Octave was on the field so much.

But one mid-week chat in Octave’s junior year truly hit home.

“I was always clowning around and it just made the coaches mad,” Octave recalled. “He brought me into the office and went off on me. He told me to start playing because I had some talent. After that day, I just straightened up.”

At 6-0 but still thin at 175 pounds, Octave was recruited by UL-Monroe, UL-Lafayette, San Diego State, Eastern Michigan and Idaho, an unusual grouping to say the least. He initially tossed Idaho’s letters in the garbage.

“I was like, ‘Where is Idaho?’ ” Octave said. “But once I came on my trip, it was, ‘This is what Idaho is like. It’s cool. It’s small.’ There was a family bond on the team which reminded me of the relationship we had on the team at St. James.”

Octave came on the advice of his high school coaches and San Diego State assistant Charlie Camp, a former UI assistant.

“When I didn’t commit to San Diego State, he and (former Vandals assistant) Tarn Sublett were good friends and he told Tarn about me,” Octave said.

Like his former St. James teammates, Davin Dennis (second-leading receiver at Kansas State) and Desi Steib (converted from receiver to cornerback at Minnesota), Octave chose to leave the sugarcane fields of rural Louisiana for a different region of the country.

He regretted it immediately.

“I hurt my shoulder and I was sitting out,” Octave said. “I was hurting because I couldn’t play and without football I’m just a wreck. My roommate (linebacker) Jaron Williams had the same injury as me and he had surgery at the same time as me.”

In a way, having a buddy encounter the same obstacles helped Octave’s adjustment to life in Moscow. Time, however, was his biggest ally.

“Every freshman thinks about leaving,” he said. “But once I was able to play football, it didn’t really bother me. I feel like I’ve been born and raised here now. I’m not a guy that likes the bright lights; I’m kind of low-key.”

As luck would have it, Idaho defeated San Diego State while Octave was redshirting after his shoulder surgery. Last year against Louisiana-Monroe, Octave hauled in a 73-yard touchdown pass in a 58-20 victory. Last week the Vandals edged Eastern Michigan 45-41 with Octave making five catches for 55 yards. He was defended at times by cornerback Chris Roberson, who hosted Octave on his recruiting trip to Ypsilanti.

“He was looking at me funny,” Octave said. “I said, ‘Do you remember me? You were my host,’ and I think he remembered then. It went pretty good.”

While Bobby Bernal-Wood has developed into Idaho’s go-to receiver with 35 catches, Octave has become a reliable option. He has 22 receptions, three more than he had last season, and one of Idaho’s three receiving TDs.

“He’s getting better daily,” Idaho coach Nick Holt said. “He’s really starting to buy in. He’s always tried to do things correctly, but (the receivers) were so far away as far as being coached with what we want to do in the passing game. With all the reps, that group is playing faster and it’s showing up on game day.”

That gives Octave another reason to call home.

“I don’t call my dad as much as my freshman year,” Octave said. “We have a real good bond. I just like to call him and talk father-and-son conversations, maybe twice a week, but it isn’t about coming home.”